Month: March 2020

Industries across the spectrum are struggling to meet the challenges that the current Coronavirus outbreak presents. Few, though, are as immediately impacted as the airlines (and all the third-party companies that provide services to them), which have seen an immediate and drastic reduction in demand.

As Delta CEO Ed Bastian noted in a letter to the company’s staff today, the company is now seeing more cancellations than new bookings over the next month. And as a result of this, Delta now expects a capacity reduction of 40 percent in the next few months, “the largest capacity reduction in Delta’s history, including 2001.” Only a few days ago, Delta was looking at a 15 percent capacity cut.

Unlike some of its competitors, including United and American, Delta says it is also eliminating all of its flights to continental Europe for the next 30 days (and that could still be extended). For Delta, this means parking 300 aircraft. The company has also announced a hiring freeze and is now offering voluntary unpaid leaves, too.

“We’ll be making more critical decisions on our response in days to come,” Bastian writes. “The situation is fluid and likely to be getting worse. But what hasn’t changed is this: Delta remains better-positioned to weather a storm of this magnitude than ever before in our history. We’ve spent a decade building a strong, resilient airline powered by the best professionals in the business. We will get through this, and taking strong, decisive action now will ensure that we are properly positioned to recover our business when customers start to travel again.”

Delta isn’t alone in this move. American Airlines is reducing its international capacity by 34 percent. Lufthansa already said it’s planning to reduce capacity by 50 percent and potentially grounding all of its A380s or even temporarily halting all operations. Discounter Norwegian has furloughed half of its staff and grounded 40 percent of its long-haul fleet.

The way things are going, the airline industry will look quite different once this crisis ends. For Delta especially, this is a far cry from keynoting CES and introducing a bunch of new technology solutions. Only a few months ago, after all, the airline industry was still in the middle of a boom. Now, the focus isn’t on shiny new tech but simply making it through the next few months.

Source: Tech Crunch

Instagram is embracing its potential as a news source, employing its ubiquity to distribute Coronavirus prevention techniques through a new call-out at the top of its homescreen feed. In some countries, Instagram will show a link to information from the World Health Organization and local health ministries along with a message like this: “Help Prevent the Spread of Coronavirus: See the latest information from the World Health Organization so you can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. — Go to who.int”

An Instagram spokesperson tells TechCrunch that the notice will start appearing in countries that have seen significant impact from the virus.

Additionally, Instagram is preventing users from searching for COVID-19-related augmented reality effects unless they were made in partnership with legitimate health organizations. This could limit the spread of disinformation or insensitive jokes about the virus. Instagram was already sending false information to fact checkers and listing official health sources atop the search results for coronavirus-related queries.

Meanwhile, on Snapchat, the company prohibits partners from sharing misinformation, relying on its closed platform to prevent the false news hoaxes that have plagued open platforms like Facebook. Snapchat is also highlighting health information shared by its Discover partners including NBC’s Stay Tuned, Sky News, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, and NowThis. Those include

• • Washington Post explained the proper way to wash your hands 

  • WSJ looked at how COVID-19 spread across the world 

  • SkyNews Explains (UK) breaks down how to self-isolate 

These are smart efforts by social platforms that know they might get opened by more people more often than some traditional news sources. With over 1 billion monthly users on Instagram and over 200 million daily users on Snapchat, they have the power to spread vital information and act as a new form of the emergency broadcast system.

 

Source: Tech Crunch

An Apple Store employee who was on leave from the Third St. Promenade store in Santa Monica, California tested positive for COVID-19 late yesterday. The employee had been on leave to care for a relative since March 2nd.

Apple consulted health experts and deep cleaned the Third St. store which remains open. Apple says that it has also instituted additional deep cleaning protocols and taken measures to reduce density by cancelling Today at Apple sessions and spacing out Genius Bar appointments.

As of March 4, Los Angeles County had declared a local emergency and on March 11th CA Governor Gavin Newsom recommended against large scale events. The city of Santa Monica cancelled all public gatherings as of March 12. Apple’s home county of Santa Clara had announced 66 total confirmed cases of coronavirus as of yesterday and issued an order to cancel mass gatherings over 1,000 people for three weeks. Yesterday’s biggest closure news, though, came from Disney, which announced that Walt Disney World, Disneyland in California and Disneyland Paris would all close for several weeks.

We received a full statement from Apple regarding the employee as follows:

“Apple’s first priority — now and always — is the health and safety of our employees, customers and the communities we serve. An employee at our Third St. Promenade store in Santa Monica informed us they had tested positive for COVID-19 late yesterday. The employee has not been to the store since taking leave on March 2 to care for a relative.

In consultation with health experts, we’ve taken a number of steps to protect our teams and customers. All our stores around the world have increased deep cleaning protocols and we have actively reduced customer density in all stores worldwide by cancelling Today at Apple sessions and creating extra space for Genius Bar appointments. As a precaution, we also undertook an additional extensive deep clean overnight before reopening the Third St. Promenade store.

We recognize this is a challenging and ever changing time for our global community and our thoughts are with those around the world personally affected by COVID-19 and the heroic medical professionals and researchers fighting it.”

Many Apple Stores around the world remain open, while others have been closed in alignment with local regulations amid coronavirus concerns. The additional cleaning protocols have been in use since February at Apple Stores worldwide. In addition, Apple has closed its stores in Italy, which remains on lockdown. The last of Apple’s 42 stores in mainland China re-opened today with limited hours after closures.

Apple has extended additional sick time to all employees and any employee with symptoms similar to COVID-19 will be paid for sick time as long as they are out. I also understand that Apple Store managers are being as flexible as possible with concerned employees who are not yet sick though no official policies have been issued.

I asked Apple for comment on whether it was considering closing any retail stores in the US but it would not comment at this time. One would absolutely have to imagine that it was monitoring all of this very closely though. And given that it has proven willing to close every store in China and Italy due to conditions, it would probably do the same in the US.

Source: Tech Crunch

The European Commission is switching all staff in “non-critical functions” to remote working from next Monday in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In an email sent to staff today the Commission writes that president Ursula von der Leyen has activated a business continuity plan that requires all but those in “critical functions” to telework from next Monday.

Previously the EU’s executive body had been implementing limited teleworking for high risk employees such as those returning from Italy for 14 days after their return.

It’s not clear how many Commission staff are defined as carrying out “critical” functions — but it seems likely that thousands will be working from home or remotely next week. In all, the Commission employs around 32,000 people.

Per the email, staff deemed to be carrying out a critical function will already have been informed they are expected to continue to present at work, with “modalities” and “guidelines” to explain working arrangement slated to follow “soon”.

Earlier this week the European Parliament also told staff to prep for mass remote working Monday. Initially vulnerable staff with pre-existing health conditions had been told to telework to limit their risk of being exposed to the novel coronavirus. 

The Commission had also already been instructing staff to switch to videoconferencing for missions, meetings and committees where possible.

Belgium, where the Commission is mainly based, has been reporting rising numbers of cases of Covid-19. Today its federal health authority reported 85 new cases today — bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 399.

The Commission itself reported the first cases (two) of Covid-19 among staff earlier this month. 

In recent weeks a number of politicians in countries across Europe have also been confirmed as having contracted the novel coronavirus.

Source: Tech Crunch

Yext says that in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s making its Yext Answers site search product free for 90 days.

You might not see an obvious connection between site search and a worldwide pandemic. You might even think this sounds like a marketing gimmick. But Yext CEO Howard Lerman said that for the past 10 days, the company has seen a spike in coronavirus-related searches across sites that use Yext Answers.

After all, Lerman said Yext has a lot of customers in the healthcare industry, such as the IHA medical group. But even beyond that, companies are getting related questions, whether it’s a hotel getting asked about their cleaning procedures, or an airline being asked whether it’s safe to fly or a vodka company getting asked about whether vodka can be used as hand sanitizer.

Businesses could try to answer those questions on a single web page or blog post, but that’s probably not going to be comprehensive. Yext Answers offers a way to present and save this information in a much more structured way, so that a visitor can jump to the exact answer that interests them. In addition, it provides data on what visitors are searching for, so companies can answer the questions that people are actually asking.

Yext is also offering a free plugin that includes frequently asked questions about the coronavirus, with answers sourced directly form the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have a product that could be pretty useful right now,” Lerman said. “We don’t want people to be getting wrong answers in the time of a global pandemic.”

He added said that the company would normally charge around $100,000 for three months of Yext Answers. However, the free offering will be limited to 1,000 entities (which can be FAQs, locations or anything else), and Lerman said most paying customers are already using more than that.

While the product is free, the company will still schedule an initial setup call with a Yext administrator and provide ongoing email support. You can read more on Yext’s new website.

Source: Tech Crunch

Are you working from home? Are you lonely? Do you miss human interaction? Did you finally get your home office setup looking good? Then join us today for our first ever (and possibly last) TechCrunch-Equity Livestream-Hangout Extravaganza.

From Team Equity we’ll have Danny Crichton, Alex Wilhelm, new addition Natasha Mascarenhas, our producer Chris Gates, TechCrunch Editorial Director Henry Pickavet, and perhaps even some puppies. It’s BYOB, naturally, but if it’s after lunch where you are, cocktails are allowed.

We’ll have a loose agenda of things to argue about, but it won’t be as much fun as it could be without you.

So join us here on Zoom. And make sure to check out TechCrunch’s Twitter handle at @TechCrunch for updates just in case we can’t figure out how to Zoom into anything.

That’s it, really. We’re excited to try this out and we’re excited to see you. Cameras on, let’s go!

Source: Tech Crunch

The coronavirus pandemic has left governments floundering, businesses unprepared and citizens scrambling for hand sanitizer like it’s worth its weight in gold.

The sense of general unpreparedness has a lot of people on edge. Not surprising, since we’re on the edge of a global health emergency and it’s impossible to predict exactly how government, travel or day-to-day business will operate during this outbreak.

Many tech companies already allow their staffs to work from home. Remote work policies are increasingly popular across the tech industry as companies push flexible working arrangements. In doing so, these companies have to prepare their IT infrastructure to accommodate remote working.

Granted, setting up a company to allow remote work is not an overnight job. It requires time and effort — but more importantly, investment and budget. It’s an even bigger task to do it securely and without opening a door for hackers to walk in. But with the coronavirus spreading, now’s a better time than ever to roll out a plan.

Secure your remote setup: The basics

Remote work has one fundamental security principle: Let in the right people to do the right things. In other words, your employees need to be able to do their jobs as if they were at the office.

Source: Tech Crunch

Bollinger Motors, the Michigan-based startup known for its rugged electric SUV and pickup truck, unveiled Thursday a chassis designed for a Class 3 commercial vehicle that has the potential to expand its customer base.

The move reflects a broader trend among EV startups to at least consider commercial applications for its vehicles in an effort to generate more revenue in this capitally intensive business. Rivian, for instance, has struck a deal with Amazon to provide electric vans for the e-commerce company.

Now, Bollinger Motors is jumping in. The company’s CEO Robert Bollinger said they saw potential for commercial applications when the company first built its B1 SUV.

“When we first built our Class 3 B1, we knew there was a commercial aspect to the platform,”  Bollinger said in a statement. “Not only cab-on-chassis, but entirely new truck bodies can fit on our E-Chassis, and help propel the world to all-electric that much faster.”

This E-Chassis is the same platform shared with Bollinger’s B1 SUV and the B2 Pickup. It will also accommodate future models and other trucks developed by Bollinger Motors, the company said. The E-Chassis can be customized to meet customer requests and will include 120 kWh battery pack or an optional 180 kWh battery pack, all-wheel drive, dual motor, portal gear hubs, hydraulic anti-lock power brakes and the ability to carry a 5,000-pound payload.

The E-Chassis will be built along its B1 and B2 vehicles and will be available to commercial customers in 2021, the company said.

Source: Tech Crunch

These days, most of the games developed need to be social, multi-platform and extensible, but there are only a few developers with the expertise to bring those toolsets to the profusion of new games that crop up every year.

Well now those development studios can turn to Pragma, which is building the back-end toolkit for gaming companies so that their developers can focus on what they do best — making games.

It’s basically taking a page from the application development playbook where off-the-shelf toolkits can reduce the time it takes to get an app into the market by months, according to Pragma chief executive Eden Chen. In the game industry, a game can stay in beta for years as developers work out the kinks.

“In the game world, because of the necessity to build multiplayer, the length to launch a game has gotten way way way way longer. Games are taking five to ten years to launch out of beta,” Chen said. 

Founded by Chen and former Riot Games engineering lead, Chris Cobb, Pragma is offering a “backend as a service”, according to the company, selling a toolkit that includes accounts, player data, lobbies, matchmaking, social systems, telemetry and store fulfillment.

In a way it’s a compliment to the front end game engines from companies like Epic, the creator of Fortnite.

Indeed, Epic had announced plans to create a back end system for game developers of its own, but Chen sees the benefits of having an independent operator doing the work — not a potential competitor.

Pragma’s investors agreed. The company raised $4.2 million in funding from a clutch of high quality firms and individual investors led by the Los Angeles-based Upfront Ventures with participation from Advancit Capital, and angel investors Jarl Mohn, President Emeritus at NPR and former Riot Games board member; Dan Dinh, founder of TSM; and William Hockey, founder of Plaid. 

“In a world where gaming studios have long used third-party engines to power their front-end development, it makes no sense for the same studios to spend millions of dollars to build their own custom back-end,” said Kevin Zhang, Partner at Upfront Ventures and board member at Pragma, in a statement. “This broken system has lasted for so long because creating a reusable, platform-agnostic backend is not just extremely complex but rarely prioritized compared to the game.” 

The gaming industry is a $139 billion behemoth that in some ways lags behind its technologically savvy peers in creating off-the-shelf tools to speed production. They’re combinations of social media platforms like Facebook and Snap, and big, high budget movie productions, but lack any tools to simplify the process of development or ensure that persistence, scale, and feature complexity don’t lead to downtimes. And downtimes could mean millions in expenses and lost revenues, Pragma said.

“Creating online multiplayer games is increasingly complex and expensive. Studios are hindered by the need to not just create compelling games, but also to build custom server technology to operate their game” said Chris Cobb, the company’s chief technology officer said in a statement.  

The company currently has one customer on its platform and will launch to an exclusive set of beta users in late 2020.

Source: Tech Crunch